


Making a New Sex Plan

by YesBothWays



Series: The Body's Intelligence Could Rival The Mind's [9]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Non-Monogamy, Polyamory, V formation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 03:28:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4247592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesBothWays/pseuds/YesBothWays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delphine decides eventually that she should ask Shay if would interested in a ménage à trios.  They talk it through between the two of them, and then Delphine presents the idea to Cosima.  Then they all try it to see what happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making a New Sex Plan

            Delphine arrived slightly early to the bar where Shay had offered to meet her. She did not want to walk up behind Shay at this point in time. That would certainly not be appreciated.

            Delphine chose herself a seat right out near the center of the bar with her back to the front door. She sat vulnerable and slightly uncomfortable about it. Even though no one would really want to kill her at this point. She just wasn't important enough to kill anymore.

            Delphine turned to see Shay, after she came through the door to the bar. She walked almost stiffly and seemed terribly on her guard. She had a pride about her, as well. Her dislike of Delphine was already transparent and felt quite vivid as she approached her. This was going to be a little bit tricky, Delphine thought.

            "Hello, Shay," Delphine said in a soft voice.  

"So tell me what this is about," Shay said.

            She put her bag on the counter, but she did not climb onto the stool yet. She clutched at her bag and looked hard at Delphine.

            "Well, we have something in common you and I," Delphine said in the slightest tease.

            "Yeah? And what is that?" Shay said.

            "We both love Cosima," Delphine said, as if this were obvious.

            "That doesn’t really make us similar in any way, though, does it?" Shay said.

            "Maybe not, but it makes us some form of allies in our mutual love. At least, it does potentially," Delphine said.

            "So you want my help with something?" Shay said. Her body was held stiff. Her hand rested on the edge of the countertop.

            "Yes, I do. But you are taking this the wrong way," Delphine said. Shay's brows were a bit furrowed. She looked terribly on guard to Delphine.

            "I am just a scientist now. I'm not a powerful woman anymore," Delphine said.

            "So I hear," Shay said. The bartender came over. Shay eyed Delphine for just a moment longer.

            "I'll have a dark and stormy," Shay said without really breaking away from staring hard at Delphine in order to look at the bartender.  

            Delphine could see now that Shay had actually been studying her. She did not seem on guard merely, but she also seemed to have noticed a deep change in Delphine. When Delphine realized she was looking, she sat back a bit and turned her body out. In response, after another long moment, Shay slipped onto the stool.

            Shay's drink came. And she took it without trying it. Delphine took a sip of her own drink and was quiet for a moment. She figured she would have to just come right out with it. Shay seemed too on her guard for any easing into a conversation.

            "I'm here to ask if you have any interest in being involved with Cosima again if she is also still involved with me," Delphine said.

            Shay looked at her with an even deeper skepticism now. She held her lips tight together. She took a drink, as if to get a pause.

            "That's really what you're asking me?" Shay said.

            "Yes," Delphine said.

            "Why?" Shay said.

            "To find out if it's actually even feasible that the three of us to work something out," Delphine said as if it were obvious.

            Shay grew distracted for a moment. She texted someone. After only a moment, a man left the bar. Delphine had to wonder if he was some friend of Shay's come to keep a look out for her. When Shay looked up at her, Delphine tried to act like she had not noticed anything.

            "Okay, so… this is a conversation we're having," Shay said.

            "If you are willing," Delphine said.

            "Does Cosima know about this?" Shay asked.

            "No. I thought I should talk to you first, find out if it's even a possibility," Delphine said. "She talks about you, of course. But not about this."

            "What makes you think she'd be interested?" Shay said.

            "Because she loves you, and you obviously would have stayed together if I were not on the scene. And Cosima has been with more than one partner before, though not as involved as with this. It all fits. So I am asking you."

            "You just put the pieces together into a logical deduction," Shay said. "Like a formula?" Delphine sighed a bit. Usually, people did not read Delphine as having emotions. She was not good at communicating them, apparently.

            "Look, Shay. It is the twenty-first century," Delphine said. "I am in love with a woman. That woman also happens to be a clone created by the company I work for. And it's practically a miracle that either of us is alive at all." Delphine looked at Shay in silence for a moment. "Stranger things have happened than my having the idea for a ménage à trois. I am French after all. I am sure there's a way to work this out, if we want to do it," she added.

            "And you are the one who's instigating it?" Shay said.

            " Cosima is not going to break it off with me for something else she wants. Not after all that has happened," Delphine said.

            "Are you bragging?" Shay said, a bit neutral.

            "No, I am not. But I am holding all the cards now, and I recognize it. So I came to speak with you first and see where you're at with all this," Delphine said.

            "I just don't really see what you would get out of an arrangement between all of us," Shay said.

            "Then you don't really get me," Delphine said simply. She thought for a moment. how to try to explain. "Tell me this, Shay. How much did you resist when Cosima broke it off with you to be with me again?"

            "I didn't," Shay said. She seemed very slightly insulted by the suggestion. She moved her hand over her glass.

            "Why?" Delphine asked. Her tone made it clear that she was making a point, trying to explain. Shay did seem to soften almost imperceptibly.

            "Because she should have what she wants," Shay said. Shay softened visibly then. She got Delphine's point already.

            "So there you are," Delphine said. "And, what's more, so should you have. I am the only obstacle that I see. Excepting that I might not be, which only I would know. Unless, of course, you just don’t want to be involved in something like this, which I would understand completely. "

            Shay's eyes moved over Delphine. She still seemed as if she were calculating a threat more than considering a proposition. She sat a bit stiff, Delphine thought.

"I suspect that my previous threat on your life is also an obstacle," Delphine said.

            "What was that crazy ass story you told me?" Shay said. The question came out a bit hard, as if this were a line drawn in the sand between them. She felt she ought to answer if she wanted Shay to listen to anything else she had to say. So she took a breath. Shay seemed to read this closely.

            "It was about my sister. I was trying to think of the scariest thing that I could threaten you with when I came, and that was what came to me," Delphine said. "I'm a scientist. I didn’t have much to work with."

            "It worked fine," Shay said. "You scared the hell out of me. And I've worked in dangerous environments before." She took a drink from her glass. She shifted in her seat. She seemed to consider Delphine more then. "Though I guess not as dangerous as you, really," she said.  

            "Well," Delphine said. "We would have to make an agreement among all of us if anything were to come of this. So maybe you could ask for something in regards to that. I won't come to your house. And maybe we'll give you a key to our house. And maybe I'll throw in a razor blade myself."

            Delphine did not know if Shay would like her joke, honestly. But Shay smiled very slightly at it. She seemed subdued about it, but Delphine was putting her more at ease.

            "You're really serious about this," Shay said after a minute. She took a drink again, slower now. She turned more towards Delphine.

            "There is no way I would meet with you here to discuss this at all if I were not serious," Delphine said. "When I decide to do something, I do it fully. And not at all otherwise."

            "Yeah, I kind of noticed that already," Shay said.

            "Why don't you get used to the idea and, just, see what you think about it, okay?" Delphine said. "I won't mention to Cosima until then. But you can if you want."

            "Okay," Shay said.

            "I got this," Delphine said. She put down more than enough for their drinks. The bartender plucked the bill from in front of her. Delphine said thanks to her.

            She looked Shay over one more time, as she stood. She still seemed a bit on her guard still. Delphine decided it was best no to try to touch her.

            "Bye, Shay," Delphine said.

            "Bye, "Shay said. Her tone seemed to have finally lost its edge to Delphine. And she did not think that Shay watched her back, as she made her way out the front door.

            Delphine stopped to light a cigarette on the sidewalk. She stood enjoying it for a moment. Shay made her way out beside her. She gave Delphine very slight wave, as she passed and turned the other way. Delphine watched her, as she walked down the street. She squinted at the smoke that came up in front of her eyes. And she tried to see Shay as if through Cosima's eyes.

            Cosima was always open with Delphine, after they got back together, about her about her feelings and her relationship with Shay. They picked up a good friendship after Cosima got involved with Delphine again. They were slightly estranged these days, because they felt uncomfortable spending time in one another's apartments. Shay still felt nervous around Delphine, and it still felt too sexual for both of them when they met at Shay's apartment. Their relationship was not able to hold the same intimacy in public spaces. They met at Felix's sometimes, whenever they could manage it.

            This could work out, Delphine thought. But it was up to Shay. She wasn't as ambivalent about Cosima. She knew her too well to think she would have misguessed how she would feel about all this. They would just have to see what came of it.

 

            Shay texted Delphine to ask her to meet again a little over a week later. She picked a juice bar as their meeting place this time, and Delphine went to meet her there at lunch. She waited until Cosima seemed distracted and just told Cosima she was going to meet a friend and left it at that. Cosima didn't ask any questions about it and just murmured as she stared into her microscope like stone sculpture.

            On her way, Delphine thought that the choice of location probably already indicated that Shay was interested in getting more involved. Delphine knew that Cosima nicknamed Shay "Cu'" a while back, which was short for Cucumber. Cosima originally thought of it as in the phrase, "Cool as a cucumber," because she loved how fundamentally mellow Shay was at all times. And it also fit, because she was always making juice and eating tons of vegetables. Shay thought that it was a dildo joke, and she liked it even when she did.

            Delphine considered now that she should be careful to keep her knowledge of this kind of thing private with Shay. She did not want her feel at an unequal position among all of them and knowledge like this could potentially make it feel that way. Just as she opened the door to the juice bar, Delphine realized that she was still wearing her lab coat. She took it off and folded it up, as she cross the room to where Shay sat. Shay was watching her, and she seemed almost pleased at this odd detail.

            "Hi," Shay said.

            "Hello," Delphine said. She sat down for a moment. She put her lab coat beside her on the bench.

            "Obviously, I'm interested," Shay said right away. Delphine did not bother to ask why "obviously." She just went with it. "Do you want something?" Shay asked.

            "Sure," Delphine said. Shay must have noticed something in Delphine's tone. Delphine turned in order to figure out how to order.

            "Don't know what to get?" Shay said.

            "I have no idea," Delphine said and turned back to her.

            "Want me to get you something?" Shay said. Delphine considered for just half an instant. She thought the offer was nice and perhaps meant to be even an even friendlier gesture than she thought.

            "Sure," Delphine said. Shay slipped out and went up to the counter. She came back and sat down with one eye on the bar.

            "So what's next then?" Delphine said. Delphine followed Shay's lead. Shay pulled a napkin out of her bag. She laid it out, and Delphine saw that she had written on it in pen.

            "The internet says we should discuss some poly boundaries early on," Shay said. She looked down at the napkin and looked up again. "So, first off, no life or death threats outside of life or death situations."

            Delphine could not help but laugh slightly at this. She just nodded severely in agreement. Shay did not laugh, although she smiled. She spied Delphine's drink on the bar and brought it to her. Delphine tried it.

            "This is good," Delphine said. Shay looked back at her list. Delphine waited and listened.

            Shay set the pace this time, and they moved much more slowly through their conversation. They would stop to take drinks of their juice and sit quietly for moment.

            "If Cosima decides to break up with one of us, she should agree to talk about it with that person first and not the other one," Shay said.

            "That's smart," Delphine said.

            "I want it to be okay for me to be with other people. I'll agree to use barriers for everything and get tested on a regular basis," Shay said.

            "That sounds very fair to me," Delphine said. Shay sat back a bit and looked at Delphine for a long moment. She had her lips pressed together and seemed deep in both observation and thoughtful.

            "So you haven't second guessed this?" Shay said.

            "No. Why would I?" Delphine said. "I thought maybe you would decide not to go in for it."

            "Well, I really have nothing to lose here," Shay said honestly. Delphine considered this for a moment. She did not feel that Shay was more secure in terms of risk with herself comparatively.

            "Honestly, I think that if what I have could be lost, it would have been already," Delphine said. "Many times, actually. The pressure would be on Cosima a bit. Two relationships won't be entirely easy to manage, but I'm sure that can turn out okay."

            "You and I have to have a good thing of some kind for this to work," Shay says.

            "Yes. I recognize that," Delphine said.

            Delphine reached over and put her hand on Shay's hand for just a moment. Shay looked at it when she did and seemed to feel the touch very deeply, almost to study it for a moment. Delphine took her hand away. Shay moved her hand. She rubbed her cheek slightly with the other. And she gave the slightest smile.  

            "So, then, I guess, we go slow and see what happens," Shay said. She thought for a long moment. "I could ask Cosima over for a make out date. And then you and I could meet up later in the week, and see if it's getting rough already." Delphine looked on board with this plan. "Who's going to talk to Cosima about this first?" Shay asked.

            "I will," Delphine said. "I'll ask her to get in touch with you either way, yes? So you don't have to hear about it just from me."

            "Okay," Shay said softly.

            When they stood to leave, they stepped out together. Delphine got out a cigarette and her lighter. Shay watched her for a moment. She turned to say goodbye to her before she lit it, so that Shay would not have to be around the smoke.

            "Goodbye, Shay," Delphine said. She decided to lean in and kiss Shay on the cheeks. Shay put her hand over Delphine's wrist in a slightly heavy way that felt comfortable and friendly. Shay let her hand rest on Delphine's arm, as Delphine stood back.

            "See you later," Shay said. Delphine smiled at that. Shay let her hand slide off Delphine's arm, before she turned away.

 

            Cosima constantly struggled with Delphine over putting boundaries on their work and home life. Delphine used to not be on her side about it, then one weekend day, after they started making out on the couch and Cosima suggested they go on upstairs, Delphine stopped in the middle of their make out to ask Cosima a question about the biogenetic type synthesis that had come into her mind while they were climbing the stairs. Cosima just gestured to Delphine's face with her hand and mouth open in astonishment, and Delphine realized that Cosima was maybe onto something.

            So one arrangement they worked out was that at least a couple of times a week, Delphine would cook them dinner while Cosima sat that kitchen table with her laptop and talked over their work. Delphine felt that they could think better at home. Cosima would go all the way into it with her while she cooked, but the agreement was that as soon as they started eating, the work got put away and that was the end of it. Delphine found that it worked and eventually even her thoughts shifted away from work just as a meal finished cooking.

            Tonight, Delphine had made them mushroom parmentier. Cosima put away her computer when it finished, and they sat and focused on eating in silence for a while. Delphine thought the potatoes were perfect at this time of year. She joked that they should send a picture to Cosima's father, and Cosima stopped and did. Delphine sat watching her in silence for a moment, smiling. She felt almost overcome with love for Cosima in that moment. And for some reason, that brought Shay into her mind, as if feeling a kinship.

            "I have something to tell you," Delphine said.

            Cosima took a drink of her wine and glanced up at Delphine. She was listening, but somehow Delphine's tone said that she was not in a hurry to tell her. She seemed a little intrigued by Delphine's statement. When she had eaten another bite, she sat back and looked at Delphine as if to prompt her to say more.

            "What's it about?" Cosima said.

            "It is about Shay," Delphine said.

            "Shay?" Cosima said in surprise.

            "Mm-hm," Delphine said. Cosima took another drink and looked really curious. Delphine took her time figuring out what to say to Cosima next.

            "She and I have been talking a bit recently," Delphine said. Cosima laughed. She looked deeply surprised. Her look of curiosity deepened.

            "About what?" Cosima said.

            "Well, to be honest," Delphine said. "We were conspiring together, and it very much involved you." Cosima had her eyebrows raised now. She gave a silent sort of chuckle at this idea. She sat very still and waited. "We decided to talk over whether you and Shay might become lovers again, meaning alongside our relationship. And we both decided it would be worth trying."

            "Bullshit," Cosima said in response. She gave Delphine a look of absolute incredulity. Delphine gave her look with a blank expression. She did not think that she would be this disbelieving at first. Delphine just kept on eating and then took a drink of her wine. She let Cosima sort of sit with that for a moment.

            Cosima's look said that she wasn't sure what was happening, but she thought that she was being played. Maybe that this was a joke of some kind. She also looked a little bit genuinely confused.

            "Would you be interested in that?" Delphine said.

            "What kind of question is that?" Cosima said.

            "It's just a question," Delphine said.

            "Would I be interested in sleeping with both of my best friends? Sure," Cosima said. She gave a sort of incredulous grin. She was not buying into this conversation for some reason.

            "So… why don't try it sometime here soon?" Delphine said.

            Cosima picked up her phone again. Delphine realized from how she typed that she was belligerently texting Shay right now. She clearly thought this was some kind of a prank or something. Delphine thought that would be in incredibly poor taste. She determined not to feel offended. Cosima's face looked softer and more baffled now.

            "You wouldn't joke about something like this," Cosima said.

            "No, I wouldn't," Delphine said. Shay texted Cosima back, and Cosima read the message. She looked up at Delphine's face afterwards.

            "Wow, Delphine," Cosima said.

            "Sorry to spring it on you like this," Delphine said. "I thought I should talk to Shay first, see if she was interested."

            "Okay," Cosima said. She knitted her fingers and put her hands on the top of her head. Her expression seemed utterly overwhelmed for a moment. She leaned forward to take another bite of her food. Her look became almost anxious or worried, as she chewed and swallowed and thought about all this.

            "Are you feeling pressured?" Delphine asked. She did not think that Cosima would. She felt concerned all of a sudden now.

            "No," Cosima said. She seemed to be thinking hard. "I'm just, like, trying to process."

            "You've been in three-way relationships before," Delphine said.

            "Yeah, but not as like… as the point of a 'V'," Cosima said. Delphine thought about that expression for a moment. Cosima sat back and thought, as well, it seemed. Delphine saw her face look entirely overwhelmed.

            "You look _much_ more stressed than excited," Delphine said to her. Cosima sort of grinned and laughed at that. Her seriousness broke through a bit and an edge of almost timid and vulnerable excitement showed just underneath of it. Delphine felt for the first moment that she had guessed right and felt at once more at ease.

            "It's a lot to imagine," Cosima said.

            Delphine did not know why this should be the case really. Cosima saw what Delphine was thinking from her expression, more or less. She shook her head and explained.

            "Not like hard to imagine, like a lot for my mind to hold," Cosima said. She made a gesture with her hands like her brain had to expand to take in the concept. Cosima got that same anxious look for a moment. Delphine looked at her curious. Cosima took the look as a sort of a question. She shook her head and opened her mouth to speak. "I'm not actually sure I can have that much sex."

            Delphine paused for just a moment, and then she burst out laughing at Cosima. She could tell that this was Cosima's main concern now that she spoke it out loud. She would never have guessed this as a response. Delphine lifted her eyebrows a bit.

            "Maybe Shay can give you a set of vitamin supplements or something," Delphine tried to joke. Cosima laughed hard at this. "You'll consider it," Delphine said.

            "Yeah, I will consider it," Cosima said. "I'm not exactly going to forget that one."

 

            Delphine ordered dinner for herself at the house and took over the kitchen table. She laid out all of her work. Cosima was going to Shay's. They were probably going to smoke a lot of pot and make out, Cosima had reported as the plan yesterday. Cosima and Delphine had talked about this a couple more times during the week, and now she and Shay were going to talk things through. Cosima came to kiss Delphine and say goodbye before she left.

            Cosima seemed really casual about it when she came back. She ran upstairs and came back down. When they kissed a little while later, Delphine realized that Cosima had run upstairs to brush her teeth. She had not really thought about tasting Shay's kiss indirectly, but the idea did not seem so terrible to her. Cosima was looking at her face. She worked her lips.

            "Is it okay?" Cosima asked. Delphine laughed.

            "Worried about the biological compatibilities in all of this?" Delphine said. Cosima just gave her a strained grin. "You taste like mint. And besides, Shay is very hygienic. The idea hardly horrifies me."

Delphine met with Shay that Saturday to get coffee and go to the morning markets. They sold food from all over the region. They went through and picked out foods together. Shay was invested in the same process of searching out precisely what she wanted as Delphine. Cosima always got bored and stirred up trouble and tried to distract Delphine, as she didn't like Delphine's French way of shopping. She wanted to bag stuff and head out like an American. The whole interaction was pleasant, and they seemed to enjoy one another's company.

            Delphine assumed that they were sort of over the anxiety of the start at that point. She barely considered it when Cosima made another plan. She was sitting at the kitchen table on a Friday after they got home from work and already working some more, when Cosima came to say goodbye to her.

            Delphine dragged her mind away for a moment, and she noticed that Cosima stood with her body stiff and unsmiling. Delphine stood up from her chair, more to get herself to pay attention than anything. She kissed Cosima for a long moment. Then she stood back. Cosima was holding onto her shirt. She seemed strangely serious.

            Delphine put her hands over Cosima's for a moment. She felt Cosima's hands shaking under her own. She drew them away from her shirt and looked down at them to see.

            "You're getting nerves," Delphine said.

            She put her hand in the small of Cosima's back and drew her forward to kiss her several more times. Cosima put her arms around her neck. They kissed for a long, calm moment, then stood after still in their embrace. She ran her hands across Cosima's back. She thought of saying something more, but she felt like Cosima would probably just have to move through this part.  

            Cosima had made it a part of their mutual agreement that she would not sleep over at Shay's. She wanted to come home to Delphine at night. So she was leaving now early. She had a larger bag than she usually carried over her arm. She looked over Delphine's face. Delphine saw her lips tremble slightly.

            "I'm off," Cosima said. Delphine leaned down to kiss her lips a few more times, a bit softly. She ran the backs of her fingers across her cheek.

            "Come back to me," Delphine said. She smiled and clearly meant it partly as a joke. Some genuine sentiment came through with it, though. It worked, and Cosima grinned at her. She seemed more confident as she headed out then.

            Delphine did not want to still be lost in her work when Cosima got back to the house. She might want to be alone, but if Delphine guessed right, Cosima would want her full attention when she came back. So she stopped herself from working eventually and went down to the kitchen. She looked around, as she made a cup of tea. Then she flipped through recipe books and made a little grocery list.

            Delphine wanted to let herself get onto the computer to look up some new ideas, but she knew that she would start working. So she just flipped through a cookbook of Cosima's that she had never looked at before. She noticed that on several recipes, she had the thought that Shay would probably like them.

            Delphine heard Cosima come in then. Delphine looked up from the table. Cosima looked different. As if her body was wrung out a bit, but also she seemed to be full of energy. She didn't greet Delphine, she just dropped her bag inside the doorway and came over to her.

            Delphine stood up to embrace her. Cosima pulled her, almost reflexively it seemed, into a kiss. Delphine could taste the faintest hint of mint on her mouth, and she could feel the slight cold dampness of her hair that she had showered while at Shay's before coming home to her. When she leaned back, she realized that she was wearing different clothes, as well. She must have taken them with her in her bag.

            The kiss felt much different than Delphine had expected. She had imaged it would be soft and light and that Cosima would be spent and tired, disinterested in her maybe even. Cosima pulled her in close and felt heavy. She felt the full intimacy and passion between them spring up right away, as if it was upon Cosima already somehow when she walked in the door and made her way straight to Delphine's arms.

            They kissed for so long that Delphine could feel that they would have to go upstairs. She reached over to push the top of her computer down and looked at Cosima. They just went straight up without a word.

            As they kissed now on the bed, Delphine felt and then saw that Cosima's hands were still shaking. The rest of her body seemed to shudder, as well, under Delphine's touch. She seemed open and vulnerable, unlike anything that Delphine expected. They made love that felt both sweet and quite passionate. They moved through it slowly, and yet, to Delphine's mind, this was almost right away after Cosima and Shay had made love. She felt surprised by it.

            Afterwards, as they lay together, in close with their arms about each other, Delphine touched Cosima's lips. Her eyes opened, and Delphine noticed that they seemed unusually soft, even for Cosima. Delphine smiled then and teased Cosima very gently.

            "Turns out, you can," Delphine said as if picking up on a conversation from before. Cosima lifted her eyebrows slightly trying to catch on. "Make that much love."

            Cosima's grin came over her slowly and grew until she held her eyes closed. She turned over and put her hands to her face. She looked a bit abashed to Delphine, and Delphine could not help but come over her to see and pull her hands away. She was actually blushing, but it was for happiness as much as embarrassment Delphine thought she could see.

            Delphine met up with Shay again at the market on Monday morning, as it was a holiday that weekend. They met at a café before they went to shop. Delphine got there first. She ordered them both espressos, since Shay had ordered one the last time. Shay arrived soon after and sat down at the table. She said thanks for the cup of espresso already waiting for her, as she did. Delphine just nodded to her.

            "You look tired," Shay said to her gently.

            Delphine stretched her back muscles. She was tired, she knew. And her body felt sore from making love too much over the past couple of days. When she looked at Shay's face, she felt certain that somehow Shay could read in her body language the reason why she was worn out.

            "It would seem that there are a few more benefits in this for me than I initially thought," Delphine said. Shay smiled at this. Delphine knew she was right that Shay had guessed this already from watching how she moved her body as she stretched.

            "Energies can open up, between people, and self-regenerate," Shay said. She seemed to know that Delphine would hardly be able to process what she meant by this. She held a sort of soft smile on her face.  

            "Sure, why not," Delphine just said. She lifted her espresso cup a bit towards Shay and then took a sip. Shay smiled warmly at this tiny gesture.

            "You kind of made this happen, you know, Shay said.

            "No, not really. Though maybe I facilitated it somewhat," Delphine said.

            "Thanks," Shay said. Delphine smiled at her. She gave her a slight sort of nod.

            "Cosima is just too good to try to keep all to oneself," Delphine said.

            Delphine meant this joke to be a parallel to how she thought about good science and the tension between keeping it private or making it public. Shay probably would not get that part, Delphine realized, after she said this.

            "When God made something as fine as Cosima, She clearly meant for us to learn to share," Shay said. She could see that Delphine liked her joke, as she smiled. "Except you'll probably tell me that it was science that made Cosima." Delphine smiled more at this, but she just shook her head.

            "Oh, no. I do not try or pretend to understand mysteries," Delphine said carefully. "It is not humble and definitely not wise."

            "Sure," Shay said softly.

 

 


End file.
